1. Create the illusion that everyone loves trans people now; there is no discrimination or prejudice anymore and that life for them is just a bowl of cherries. Check.
2. Create the myth that there is a powerful and sinister trans lobby operating behind the scenes that conspires to manipulate and control to the extent that they already have too much power now and are taking over. As evidenced by them getting ‘uppity’ recently and having the temerity to ask if they’re going to get equal rights at some point in the future. Check.Double-Check.
3. Turn the wealthy and powerful journalistic establishment who have traditionally persecuted and marginalised them into the actual victim instead. Check.Double-Check.
4. Re-iterate the usual pseudo-scientific misinformation about the ‘unfair advantages’ trans people have in sport backed up by no-one in particular. Check.
5. Of course, don’t forget to repeat the obligatory line that all trans people conform and reinforce patriarchal gender stereotypes whilst all cis people do not. Check.Double-Check.
6. In order to further terrify the reader, make casual mention of a trans person who has committed a crime – or is notorious in some way, like did time for alleged disloyalty or treason. Check.Double-Check.Triple-Check.
7. By all means, please remember to make the ridiculously offensive association with paedophilia (*Too over the top for the target reader audience to swallow? Go on, be bold…Trump is in power now and tomorrow belongs to Putin!). Check.
8. Reassure the reader that even if by the end of your article they have formed the suspicion that you have an ulterior motive to lie and demonize the extraordinarily diverse trans community, it doesn’t really matter if knuckle dragging bigots are incited by your words of hate and misinformation to actually go out there and discriminate, beat, rape and murder innocent trans people because they are basically a really miniscule minority anyway so in a world where rampant fascism’s back in fashion, they’re small and they don’t matter. Like Belgium. Check.
9. Conclude by claiming that you are not prejudiced, of course. Check.

(*Please note, will also work just as well when the outrageously right-wing media baron whom you work for wants to scapegoat a. immigrants; b. single parents; c. non-white people; d. the working class; e. disabled people; f. Muslims etc.) Happy paycheck journalism!

Thank you, Violetwisp – that’s really kind of you. Glad the post resonated with you and many thanks for re-blogging it.

One aspect that I’ve found really frustrating about this whole Jenni Murray thing in particular is how the journalistic establishment have tried to fabricate the myth about some powerful, supposedly sinister transgender lobby attacking her and trying to shut her up. In fact, far from being roundly condemned Murray was actually lionized by the British journalistic establishment: I counted about eight actually profoundly transphobic articles written in her defence in top British newspapers in contrast to only three articles that actually criticised her. Only ONE response from a trans woman journalist was published – that of Saira Khan in The Mirror. Remind me, British journalistic cis establishment, who is no-platforming whom again?!

Moreover, the online news forum threads largely agreed with Murray and she seems to have emboldened some really disturbing transphobic opinions – the tone of Mumsnet on the subject, in particular, almost felt like it had been taken over by a mixture of Ukip supporters and TERFs for a few days. Hardly the all-round ‘kicking’ that journalists such as The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman claimed that Murray received in the aftermath of her Sunday Times opinion piece. Also feel sad, that so many people claiming to be feminists decided to use the onset of March 8th International Women’s Day to bash other women (and a marginalised, highly oppressed minority group of women at that!) by questioning their authenticity and their very right to even exist instead of addressing the actual issue of sexism and patriarchal oppression.

Meantime, whilst all this was going on, all this misinformation and hate was being spewed by those insulated, dinner-partying journos from the ivory towers of the leafy, affluent, fashionable suburbs, at least another five trans women worldwide were murdered and at least one was violently attacked in this country – but that only made small print if it were even mentioned at all in the national newspapers. So much for the powerful and influential journalists claiming they are being side-lined because transgender people have a hold on society to such an extent that we are able to ‘no-platform’ any criticism of us, eh?

I think that the last two weeks of ‘open season’ on transgender people has been a timely reminder that the British Press still is very much institutionally transphobic. It’s almost like, in common with the Trumpoids across the pond, they are desperate to portray the transgender community community as some kind of threat when the hard fact of the matter is that we are far more likely to be attacked by them than the other way round.

It’s a curious reaction. I don’t know anything about the background to this story and still haven’t had time to check out all your links. I hope to do so later in the week. Your post identified much more articulately something that’s been infuriating me for a while. I did a response post to “Why I am trans critical” by a rabid feminist man who has jumped on the hobby horse – https://violetwisp.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/why-im-transphobic-critical/

I simply can’t get my head round it, the arguments are like religious fundamentalism.